Jennylyn Mercado on the mend

“AT LEAST, I can say that I loved with all my heart.”

Quite understandably, on the day of the interview, GMA 7 actress Jennylyn Mercado would not dwell on the details of her breakup with Luis “Lucky” Manzano.

She pointed out that her heartbreak was really just a molehill compared to the mountains of problems currently confronting central Philippines in the aftermath of Super Typhoon “Yolanda.”

“Instead of getting depressed, I realized I should think of ways to help,” she said.

Blessed

During this interview, she described herself twice as “blessed”; apparently “lucky” was no longer part of her vocabulary. Seriously.

Asked what she realized from the split-up, she replied, “At least I know that I gave my all; That I loved with all my heart.”

Had she fully recovered? “I’m getting there,” she said, “but I cannot yet start entertaining suitors again.”

As a volunteer in her home network’s fund-raising telethon for the typhoon survivors, she was glad to be kept busy and productive, and do something positive. “I got to calm down [agitated] callers, but they helped me, too, by keeping me informed about the situation in Leyte.”

The calamity had hit close to home, since many of her mother’s relatives are from Palo, one of the hardest-hit areas. She has since reconnected with most of them.

She’s been incredibly busy. Right after the finale of the talent search “Anak Ko ’Yan,” her latest soap, “Rhodora X,” was launched. (She is also part of the variety program “Sunday All Stars,” and the cooking show “Sarap With Family.”)

In “Rhodora X,” she plays a woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder (DID, or split personality). “We sat down with a psychologist, who explained to us that it was not just insanity,” she said.

In that discussion, she realized that relatives and friends of a DID sufferer were unsung heroes. “It takes a lot out of them to cope.”

Reunions

“Rhodora X” reunites her with former sweetheart Mark Herras—they topped the reality talent quest “StarStruck” in 2003— and Yasmien Kurdi, who was a finalist in the first season of the show. “Good thing about our batch,” Jennylyn said, “[is] we’re pretty solid. We try to meet up at least three times a year. We want to keep in touch, especially after we lost one of our batchmates.” (Tyron Perez died in 2011.)

She was proud to note that she and Mark had both grown up. “Back then, our tapings would get canceled whenever we were quarreling. We’re more mature and more professional now.”